While painting Van Gogh was not standing in front of the Vineyard,
he painted it at the Yellow House
completely out of memory and imagination
the day after he walked through the nearby Wine plantation.

1888 - A Letter from Vincent van Gogh to uncle Eugene
mentionning the project to paint the Red Vineyard

1889 November 15 Octave Maus sends a letter to Vincent van Gogh
to invite him expose his paintings

"The association requests you,Sir, to kindly let us know as soon as possible if you accept its invitation,
as the number of these is strictly limited,
and to inform us before 15 December (1889) of the notes and comments
you wish to see featured in the catalogue."

The presence of van Goghs paintings cause some turbulences.
There is a discussion wheather art should be considered what is "officiel or academic"
while "modern" paintings
did not correspond to the taste of the time of most people.

The journal "l'Art moderne" edited by Octave Maus
presents van Gogh as one of the artists who will be most discussed.

Henry de Groux who was also part of the XX mouvements
creates a scandal and wants the van Gogh paintings
to be withdrawn.

According to the legend Claude Monet
considered van Gogh's paintings the best one on the expo.

1890 January 18 opening of the expo Les XX1890 February 23 closing of the expo Les XX

To show her public supportAnna Boch decides to buy the Red Vineyard.
The price was 400 Francs (about 2000 $ in todays values).

1890 July 29 death of Vincent van Gogh1891 January 25 death of Theo van Gogh
(Vincent van Gogh's brother and manager)

1890 to 1906 - The Red Vineyard at the Villa Anna in Brussels

Anna Boch kept the painting in her beautiful house
in the rue de l´Abbaye in Brussels until 1906.

The painting was located in her "salon de musique" on the ground floor,
next to her most important Impressionist paintings like
the Gauguin, Seurat and Signac.

In the "salon de musique" she organised concerts, every monday,
with young musicians and singers she wanted to promote.
While listening to the music,
her guest were able to admire the beautiful van Gogh paintings.

1906 - Sale of the Red Vineyard at the Galerie Bernheim Jeune

1906 Anna Boch sold the Red Vineyard for 10,000 francs
at the Galerie Bernheim Jeune,
25 Boulevard de la Madeleine
in Paris,
5 minutes from place de la Concorde.
1909 the
Hotel Crillon located there only opened as a Grand Hotel 3 years later .

The reason for her sale was not the need of the money.
Her father Victor Boch had given her
significant amounts of shares in both Ceramics companies
Keramis Boch Frères in La Louvière directed by himself
and Villeroy & Boch in Mettlach, directed by his brother
Eugen von Boch.
The dividens received from both companies
enabled her to
buy paintings whenever she wanted.

The Red Vineyard was bought in the same year
by the Russian textile business man,
Sergei Shchukin,
an important Collector of Impressionist and Post Impressionist Art.
The paintings of his collection decorated the walls of his home in Moscow,
the Trubestkoy Palace.
The Sergei Shchukin's collection is comprised of
57 paintings by Picasso,
38 by Matisse, 16 Gauguins, 13 Monets, 8 Cezannes
as well as works by Renoir, Rousseau, Signac, and Toulouse-Lautrec.
As to van Gogh, Sergei Shchukin owned 4 paintings,"the Red Vineyard", "the Night Cafe", "Portrait of Dr Rey" and XX.

From 1906 until 1917, the Red Vineyard
was in one of these halls of the Shchukin manison

pictures of the Shchukin mansion in Moscow

Art print photo
Sergei Shchukins large dining room, c.1930s

Anonymous

newleay added following a conversation with Natalia Brodskaya (see below)1909 Sergei Shchukin writes his will following the death of his first wife
His collection should belong the the country of Russia.

Following the Russian Revolution1918, November 18 Vladimir Lenin
signed a law to appropriate all of Shchukin´s paintings
.
Sergei Shchukin was able to leave to Paris,
where he lived for the rest of his life.

1978 The Anna Boch expertDr Therèse Thomas had the opportunity to travel to Moscow
participating in an organised cultural program.
During this trip she "escaped" from the "official" program
and took a taxi to
the Puskin Museum
where she saw the painting
... but at the time it was strictly forbidden to take pictures.

Until the fall of the iron gate
acces to the
Shchukin Collection was very difficult
for people from the Western World.

Today 149 pictures from the Shchukin Collection
are
in the Hermitage Museum of Saint Petersburg,
84 are in the Pushkin Museum of Moscow,
2 are still in Baku, 1 in Odessa.

The person in Russia that knows the most
about the Shchukin Collection
is a certain Mrs
Brodskaya,
a curator of the Hermitage Museum
and writer of many books on French Impressionist Painters.
2010 France has made her "chevalier dans l’ordre des Arts et Lettres".

The World's most valuable paintings

If the "Red Vineyard" should ever be sold,
(which is not likely to happen)
it might be
the
world´s most expensive painting
as besides
it´s exceptional "Beauty"
it has the "Legend"
of being the only painting,
Vincent van Gogh
probably the World´s most famous artist,
sold during his lifetime.

The only other painting which,
if sold at the same auction (which is not likely to happen either)
might reach a higher price
is the also "legendary"Mona Lisa by Leonardi da Vinci
today exhibited in the Louvre in Paris

Like the Red Vineyard, the Mona Lisa has a lot of magic connected to it.
The fact that is was stolen in 1911 has added massive value to the painting.

The Mona Lisa is located a few hundred metters from the Cremerie de Paris.
Once upon a time King Henry IV created a private tunnel
between
the Louvre and the Hotel de Villeroy (Cremerie de Paris)

... but
the fascination for money of the reporter
has someting unhealthy
far from real art collectors
like Anna Boch or Sergei Shchukin.
Well the collectors presented in the Video
were not the ones that had direct acces
to Van Gogh, Picasso or Matisse.

1971 January 10 death of Coco Chanel1993 June acquisition of the Cremerie de Paris opened as a Sony Boutique.1995/1999 little by little the Cremerie turns into the first Internetcafe in France.

2000 January 25 registration at the Cremerie de Paris of the Phonebook of the World.com domain2000 January first registration at the Cremerie de Paris (Cybercafe de Paris) of the Anna Boch.com domain name.
Due to transfer problems with Network Solutions the domain is lost two years later.

2002 April10 re-registration of the AnnaBoch.com domain

2007 December 20 death of Helen von Boch

2010 August 4, under the inspiration of Beatrice von Boch
the Anna Boch website is finally launched ... after having paid the domain renewal fees for 10 years 2011 March 11 death of Beatrice von Boch2011/2012 Reopening of the Cremerie de Paris as a Pop Up Expo Center

2015 - Thanks to the Red Vineyard
meeting a fascinating Russian Lady
on a street of Meudon2015 may 29 took place the "fête des voisins",
an event in France where you can meet people in the neighborhood.
There was an elderly Lady that spoke perfect French
with almost no accent. She did not seam to know many people ...
The editor of this article started talking ....

In fact the Lady was from Russia,
just visiting a friend,
the legendary Roseline Granet,
a sculptor that is always walking her dog ...

Mrs Granet was extremely interesting.
She is a little bit a "living legend" in Meudon,
not only as a spectecular sculptor ...
Before meeting her rhumors were in the air that
she was the daughter of Gustave Eiffel
... well if you look at the dates this is not possible
but there is a very close connection.

Anyways talking to her had inspired him to create a logo
for Whitepages he edits in different countries,
replacing the
letters "I"
and "A"
by
the Eiffel Tower.

The year before she had inspired him to create a logo
for White Pages
including the Eiffel Tower

Apparently she was visiting Paris every year
and she was very interested by Impressionist paintings.
Apparently she was from a museum ...
Her name
Nathalia Brodskaya

The conversation comes across Vincent van Gogh

"You know I once had a great uncle
that was an Impressionist painter.
I would have loved to meet him,
but he died a long time before I was born.
I only know about hi through stories
and one day my grandmother pushed me to make a website about him ...

He knew Vincent van Gogh.
He pushed his sister to buy a van Gogh painting,
apparently the only one the artist sold during his lifetime"

Nathalia Broddskaya "Do you mean The Red Vineyard ?
It is
the crown jewel of Russia's art collection."

The editor of this article invites Nathalia Brodskaya and her friend
to have a café in the center of Paris
at
his office the Cremerie de Paris.

Unfortunately Roseline Granet had to travel to Normandy
but she said "you will be surprised by all what Natalia knows :-)"

Cremerie de Paris is a legendary milk store in Paris
which the editor reopened in the mid 1993
as a Sony Video store which became the first Internetcafe in France.

The legendary Natalia Brodskaya from the Hermitage Museum.
in
the staircase which was a childhood place for Louis XIV
who played there with his friends Francois de Villeroy and his sister Catherine de Villeroy.

The visitors of the early Cybercafe
were the most fascinating.
Already connected Americans visiting Paris
and desperately looking for internet access to use something
nobody in France knew about: "email".

We encountered many tech pioneers
most of the time not even realizing who they were
... or who they were going to become.
Some were already older,
one had walked on the Moon,
another one had, as a young woman,
been a friend of Alexander Graham Bell,
the inventor of the phone.

With the inspiration of these avant garde
Cybercafe visitors
we started a collection of iconic Internet Domains
which
were later transformed into different websites:

2011Cremerie de Paris was converted
into a
Pop Up Expo space.
Very creative people like Junichi Masuda of Yaniv Abittan
come by to organise Pop Up Events
for Very Beautiful Brands
they work with or they have invented.

While talking the editor realises that Nathalia
is a curator of one of the World's most famous Museums
the iconic Hermitage
She
has written many books about Impressionis artists.

Wahh, it's not every day you run into a Lady
with such a cultural background.

Unbeleivable
Nathalia is THE EXPERT on
Sergei Shchukin
the man who was the next owner of the painting.

Shchukin was by far
the world's most significant collector of Modern Art.
A Lady from Russia he meets on a little street near Paris.
Yes this Lady is the curator of one of the two museums
where the
most of 's
his spectecular Shchukin collection is now.

After the visit of the Cremerie de Paris
and several coffees at the Bistro des Halles
the editor just did not want to let her go ...

instead of driving her back to Meudon
the afternoon continues
with a visit to the Bernheim Jeune Art Gallerie,

first the former location at place de la Madeleine
and then the present one rue du Fbg St Honoré.

... followed by a couple of drinks at the Hotel le Bristol.A truely fascinating day ...

Suddenly the editor gets a completely different point of view
on Sergei Shchikin.

Hopefully we will meet again ...

2015 May 31 while writing this article the next day,
is registered the Sergei Shchukin.com domain name

probably the debut of another adventure ....

When he says good by to the
fascinating Natalia Brodskaya
she thanks him for having show her the Cremerie de Paris
and she asks him a question.
I loved this staircase at the Cremerie.
It must have so much history ...

Did your uncle ever show the Cremerie de Paris
to his friend Vincent van Gogh ??

Has Vincent van Gogh ever been to the Cremerie de Paris ?

Unfortunately uncle Eugène was very shy
and unlike his sister Anna,
he never kept a diary ...

Most the editor of this article knows about Eugène
comes
from stories
Maria von Boch Brügman, his grandfather and Helen von Boch have
told him when he was a young / less young child.

Many things are unknown about his life ....
but the more he and his friend Dr Therèse Thomas continue to research
the more they find
and different pieces reconnect like a puzzle.

Has Vincent van Gogh
ever been at the Cremerie de Paris ??
For the Moment the editor of this website does not know.

If ever uncle Eugene (1855- 1941) knew
that the old Villeroys lived there
it's possible that he showed the place
to Vincent van Gogh
in the years 1888 to 1890.

During those years they lived
walking distance from each other in Paris Montmartre
not very far from the center of Paris
where is located the Cremerie de Paris (since 1870)
at the Hotel de Villeroy (since 1640)
.

The direct uncle of Eugene and Anna Boch
(older brother of their father Victor Boch)
was
Eugene von Boch (1808 - 1898)
who was married to Octavie Villeroy (1823-1899)
They were also the great great grandparents
of the editor of this website
who currently manages the Cremerie de Paris.

Octavie Villeroy was the granddaughter
of the ceramics entrepreneur Nicolas Villeroy (1759-1843)Eugen von Boch was the grandson of the
ceramics entrepreneur Pierre Joseph Boch (1737-1818)
Nobody knows if there is any link
between Nicolas Villeroy
and the old Nicolas de Villeroy
During the French Revolution the roots were lost.

Nicolas IV de Villeroy
(secretary of state and advisor of 4 Kings of France)
and his grandson Nicolas V de Villeroy
(educator of King Louis XIV)
The Villeroys lived at the Hotel de Villeroy until 1671

When the editor of this website arrived at the mansion in 1993
he had no idea about it's fascinating history
and all these historic links
...

It's only that he head heard via Coco Chanel
that Vincent van Gogh had once been there ...Cremerie de Paris and it's historic staircase
were a secret nightwalk destination
for Chanel and her Brazilian friend Aimée de Heeren.
Both Ladies lived nearby
one
at the Hotel Ritz
the other at the Hotel Meurice

how did Chanel know ?
She was too young to have met van Gogh in person ...
We have to continue to research ....

Never having cared about the age
of his friends
and talking to all kinds of people
sometimes met somewhere in the street
the editor of this website haddirect access to fascinating history.
And when you start to research even more
it's amazing all what you find ....

A year later - summer 2016

the unusual meeting with above
mentioned
fascinating Lady from the Hermitage Museum
in St Petersburg
met on the street in 2015
continues ...

While adding this little paragraph
the editor discovers the book Post Impressionism
written by Nathalia Brodskaya

Last week (june 2016) she was back to Paris
where in the meantime
we have
added a new Cremerie de Paris
and the Pop Up Café Maison Rouge.

The Cremerie de Paris is the 3rd Pop Up Store location
and the Maison Rouge can be converted as a Pop Up Cafe
to match a new Pop Up Store.
Maison Rouge is one of the historic Brasseries
of the Halles foodmarket -
after having been closed for a long time it reopened in April 2006.

Yes we have heared that Picasso
liked to play Billiard ar the Maison Rouge
but no new discoveries concerning Vincent van Gogh.

Nathalia Brodskaya and the editor of this article
at the Pop Up Cafe Maison Rouge
located on 12 rue de la Ferronnerie,
next to the Pop Up Store Cremerie de Paris N°3

And while having a café
they talk about new discoveries
concerning the history of the Cremerie de Paris.

Last month we found out
that a long long time ago
saturday May 22 1717
the Russian Tsar
Pierre Le Grand / Peter the Great (1682-1725)
had a connection with our Cremerie de Paris.

While visitng Paris he went to see
Louis Leon Pajot
who owned the Cremerie at the time.
Pajot was running the Royal French Postal services
and he
had a fascinating collection of
scientific
instruments.

"you know Ben
it is fascinating to research,
because the more you research
the more you find out.
With your great uncle
there are still a lot of things
to discovered about van Gogh

You just have to keep going ..."

the conversation continues
2016 october 9.
Daymoon that helps with the Phone Book of the World
also loves it.
The subway exit
construction still has a way to go.

Two years later - summer 2017

2017 May 5 opened the new subway exit,

Nathalia Brodskaya is back to Paris
and of course she wants to see the new subway exitChatelet-LesHalles.com N°1 exit
in front of the Cremeries.

Anna Boch that used to boost young artists
would be amused to see that
at the Cremeries de Paris
are more and more turning into
a world famous expo hotspot.

Lina Chbani picted Cremerie N°1
to set up a Pop Up Store Expo
for
the famous street art artists Noty Aroz.

To honor the history of the Cremerie
5 El Murciago paintings were called "Villeroy"

According to rhumors Brigitte Macron that just
France's glamorous new First Lady
loves their vandal pastings
you can see around Paris.
She has already brought so much energy to France
since the spectacular election of her husband
may 7 2017.

One of the guests of honor was Aishat Garba
manager of Pancakes & Booze Art Show.
Still under jacklag just arriving
from San Francisco she organises
an emerging artist RdV
at the Cremerie every year.
The picture shows her with her new sunglasses including a camera ...

Well if Eugène Boch,Vincent van Gogh or Anna Boch
would have been able to come
they would have loved it ....
Cremerie de Paris events are always fun.

Nathalia Brodskaya
would have impressed them
with her extensive art knowledge,

Lina Chbani would have impressed them
by her glamour and style
and her talent to organize hi profile art events.

Aisha Garbat with her smashing singlasses.
If ever Van Gogh and Boch were 140 years younger
Aishat would have made them participate in her nextPancakes & Booze Art Show
that with take place at the Cremerie
October 5 2017.
She knows to detect artist with potential.

Too bad Dr Therese Thomas
could not come from Belgium,
she has done so much
for Anna Boch's reputation
and educated the editor of this article
when he was still a child.

History of some van Gogh Paintings

The one and only painting sold during van Gogh´s life

1890 The Red Vineyard was the only Painting van Gogh sold during his lifetime
for 400 Francs (around 1600 $ today)
to Anna Boch.
Due to it´s Legend
the painting (if ever sold ... which is unlikely to happen)
might be the most expensive painting of the World (after the Mona Lisa)